Don’t read this book in the dark! Be prepared for some very interesting Marine lingo and slang that does take some getting used to. But, you’ll definitely enjoy the military (Marine) action throughout the book. We’re going into a fight that just continues one bulkhead after another.
You are a United Colonies and Allied Systems (UCAS) Marine part of the Third Battalion, Fifth Marine Division, Forward Assault Force. You’re headed to an unknown spacecraft apparently drifting in the DMZ around the independent planet Mars. From what I gather, Mars and the UCAS have had their differences in the past and have fought wars over them. Right now, that’s not happening, but by agreement, anything floating in the DMZ it allowed to be investigated by either side.
You are now Sergeant Michael T. Ramero (Ram) who in the beginning and along with one hundred forty-one other Marines have been packed in cryo-storage for this current deployment from the deployment craft *“Paladin”*. You wake up along with the rest of Bravo Company and attempt to shake off that long sleep even though they said there should be no long-term effects. Yeah, sometimes they lie! Still, you get up, get organized and then get the rest of your Marine grunts ready to do what they do best and that is kill someone or something.
Sergeant Ramero has something of a dark background. Actually for the Marines, it’s very dark. You see he was once a Navy puke, but one that did just about the same thing he’s now doing for the Marines. Sgt. Ram is a boarding expert! What that means is he boards spacecraft to find out what the hell is wrong with it and its crew or passengers. Most of those boardings in the Navy were due to pirate action of one kind or another which sometimes involved rescuing civilians or others that originally owned the starship.
Sgt. Ram’s last mission with the Navy didn’t quite go as expected and he had to make a difficult judgment call. It cost him his Naval career, but the Marines definitely saw his worth and brought him aboard to do bad things to other people. His current mission will be another boarding action only this time it’s going to involve boarding a mysterious Martian WarHulk drifting in the DMZ. A Martian WarHulk is not a tiny ship. No, it’s absolutely huge, a small city apparently drifting dead in space. Appearances can be and often are deceiving, very deceiving.
While Sgt. Ram is a squad leader, his company’s mission is to board the WarHulk and find out what happened to the Special Operations Group that previously boarded the starship. He and his squad, specifically, are sent into search for and make contact with the SOG operators and bring them back to the company area. Yeah, just as simple as that. Only this Martian warhulk seems worse for the wear and looks to be old, very old. Ram also isn’t sure that it’s not occupied. By what, he doe not know, but the feeling is there. His squad needs to be on its toes and ready for anything.
So, are you ready for some fighting against something you never thought you’d ever encounter. You want to know that your enemy, the Martian Marines, might turn out to be your best and only allies aboard this dark and battle-damaged starship. Where has it been to have seen so much damage and what did all this hurt to such a gigantic ship. Oh, and it’s not empty. It has things aboard that you don’t want to meet, ever!
Had fun reading this book late into the night. Yeah, I couldn’t sleep some afterwards, but that comes with the territory. I’m kind of disappointed that so far there’s only this and one other book shown in the series. I’ll be waiting for book 2, “Line of Battle”, coming out on/about 5 January 2027. It will be on my must-read list.
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[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]
[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]